I’m thrilled to present all 4 episodes of UnErased: the History of Conversion Therapy in America, produced by the creators of Radiolab. I’m a producer and creator and could not be more proud. The series looks at all facets of conversion therapy and charts a way out of the bigotry. I hope you’ll have a listen!

But we also want to share even more important message, especially in light of the current administration’s proposed idea of limiting gender classifications and therefore of erasing trans lives: that “trans people are twice as likely as LGB people to be subjected to conversion therapy, which substantially increases the risk for suicide” (Trans Lifeline).

In the past few weeks, both the Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline have received four times the normal call rate, with a significant increase in new calls. As we celebrate Boy Erased, “we also need to redouble our efforts to fight for the most vulnerable members of the community it portrays” (Trans Lifeline).

So please, as you discuss conversion therapy and Boy Erased, remember to elevate the discussion to include trans lives, and the lives of POC, undocumented people, and people living with disabilities who have also been affected by conversion therapy. And remember that you don’t have to be in a facility or a camp to undergo conversion therapy. With the administration’s most recent plan to “legally erase trans people and deny them civil rights” (Trans Lifeline), we are experiencing conversion therapy on a national scale. `

"Some time ago — never mind how long precisely — I slipped off the map of the world,” Dr. Voth, a transgender professor and the principal narrator of Jordy Rosenberg’s “Confessions of the Fox,” announces on the first page of this debut novel, in a hat tip to “Moby-Dick.” The alternate world into which Voth slips is not a watery abyss but rather a “living diorama of flesh worship,” which he implores his reader to join. As cetology is to Melville, so quim (18th-century slang for female genitalia) is to Rosenberg. Quim’s cognates — tuzzy-muzzy, boiling Spot, monosyllable, Water-Mill — are scattered through these pages, expanding conventional usage to “signify any loved point of entry on the body, irrespective of gender or sex,” a description of sorts of Rosenberg’s novel."

I suggest we not settle for less when it comes to our American heroes. Humanity is only one prerequisite for the making of a hero. Instead, I suggest we honor the lives of the downtrodden and broken among us, as Jesus did.

I'll be speaking at the National Arts Club Feb. 7, 8 PM with Maud Newton. We'll be talking about inherited guilt, messy genealogies, and the complicated South. I'll even throw in a slideshow. The event is open to the public. RSVP now.

“Along their separate journeys, Greenwell and Conley crossed paths in the Balkans, and the two writers stayed in touch. The Gay Invasion was not intended as a pride parade through bookstores by promising new gay writers whose works have been praised for their lush, poetic prose, as well as their compassionate portrayals of the complexities that accompany the ongoing task of reconciling one’s queer identity within a conservative climate. The tour was, in fact, an extension of their bonded mission of LGBT youth activism. Having both taught in high schools, Greenwell and Conley said they continually encountered the same kind of shaming among their students that they had experienced in their own childhoods."